


Love at First Photo Op

by sastieel



Series: Sastiel Love Week 7 [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Actor Castiel (Supernatural), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Conventions, Famous Castiel (Supernatural), Fan Jessica Moore, Fan Sam Winchester, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23538415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sastieel/pseuds/sastieel
Summary: Sam is a long time fan of the tv showAngels. Since the very beginning Castiel Novak has been his favorite actor on the show. Now's his chance to meet him.Or Famous!Castiel and Fan!Sam meet at a convention and fall in love which we've obviously all been waiting for.From Prompt "Day 2: AU/Canon Divergent" of Sastiel Love Week 2020
Relationships: Castiel/Sam Winchester
Series: Sastiel Love Week 7 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692586
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33
Collections: Sastiel Love Week 2020





	Love at First Photo Op

**Author's Note:**

> I've only ever been to creation cons so that's what this is based on. Enjoy the fluffy meet cute!
> 
> Thanks to @amastiel for being my fellow convention daydreamer and who ate food with me while we sat in a convention hall together. Here's to meeting IRL again at some point in the future! <3

Sam had been waiting for the Kansas City Angelcon for what seemed like forever. Him and Jess had their cosplay ideas months ago. He and Jess had spent so many late nights creating the perfect look for their pair of angel costumes. They cosplay turned out perfectly including realistic wings that actually moved with their arms. 

Sam was loving the con so far. He loved interacting with all the fans wanting pictures of their cosplays and they had even won the group costume contest the previous day. Sure he couldn’t afford all the autographs and photo opportunities that some fans got but the energy surrounding the convention center was enough for him. He enjoyed being around fellow fans. So far the con has been a blur of panels and buying amazing fan creations in the vendor’s room. The costume contest was definitely one of the things they had been looking forward to and they were so excited when all their hard work was recognized. 

But today was gonna be even better. It was Sunday and Sam’s absolute favorite actor on the show, Castiel Novak, was here. Sam had saved up multiple paychecks from his job at the Lawrence coffee shop to be here. He had saved just enough to afford General Admission all weekend and a solo photo op with THE Castiel Novak. 

As GA admission, Jess and Sam were currently sitting in their seats waiting for Sam’s group for Castiel ops to be called on the screen. They were still finishing up Michael Lucifer duo ops that were supposed to be done an hour ago. The con was officially running behind. Luckily Sam and Jess had planned ahead and got Arby’s delivered while they saved their seats. Jess had had a photo op with her favorite character, Anna, played by Julie McNiven, who would have her panel this afternoon. Now they were both waiting for the Castiel op they shared. Sam and Jess didn’t mind spending all their time in the auditorium since they enjoyed the panels. The Arby’s curly fries made it better. Plus it got them a better view of the actors as they walked to and from their autograph tables. 

Sam had been a fan of Angels after watching the first episode 6 years ago. Since the very beginning Castiel Novak had been his favorite. There was just something about Clarence’s first entrance in the pilot that made Sam shiver with excitement every time he watched it. Clarence exhibited such raw angelic power. As a 26 year old gay man Sam had to admit Clarence was attractive and Clarence’s signature suit and trenchcoat helped with that. It was an iconic look, no matter what other fans said about Clarence’s lack of fashion sense. 

Sam had gone down a youtube rabbit hole one day, watching previous cons Castiel attended. From that point, Sam was officially hooked on Castiel’s personality as well. Not only was he a gorgeous, talented actor, but Castiel was patient and caring with all the fans he interacted with, he was funny and a great story teller, he cared about the world and wanted to improve it. So yeah you could say Sam was a little in love with Castiel Novak. 

Sam was the proud founder of the emmy4cas tumblr. He was on a mission to spread the true talent of Castiel. Sam believed Castiel should have one an Emmy years ago for his performance. He did a wonderful job of portraying Clarence as the stoic, powerful, badass angel on a journey between sticking to his angel nature and joining the human world. Castiel deserved to be recognized for his talent. 

And now he got to meet him. Castiel’s panel had been earlier in the day. Somehow Castiel made even prank stories entertaining and the way he had to interrupt himself to laugh made Sam fall in love with Castiel that much more. With every laugh, Sam couldn’t help but stare at the laugh wrinkles around Castiel’s eyes, they were so cute.

Jess gestured toward the screen and pointed out that Castiel photo ops 1-100 had been called. Sam’s ticket was number 53 and Jess was 82 so they made their way down to the photo op room to line up. 

Sam could feel himself getting nervous. Jess tried to make him feel better by going over what poses they planned and how they were gonna explain it. 

Jess had actually gifted Sam her photo op since she knew how much Sam loved Castiel and didn’t mind sharing. The idea was for all three of them to act like the badass angels. Sam really hoped it would turn out well since Castiel wouldn’t have his own wings obviously.

Sam was planning to do a typical hug pose for his individual photo he had bought. He hoped the angel wings didn’t get too in the way. He and Jess had practiced at home to make sure a hug was even feasible with the wings on and it seemed like it was. 

Suddenly Sam and Jess were toward the front of the line. The music was so loud in the photo op room and he couldn’t see Castiel but just being in the same room as him made him more jittery. He was starting to feel it in his throat. 

He hoped he didn’t mess up or say anything embarrassing. The line creeped forward and the girls in front of them were getting their op taken. 

Then Jess was pulling his forward to do their pose. 

Castiel smiled up at Sam “I love the wings. Did you make them?” Castiel noticed Sam was a little starstruck and continued, “What are you two thinking for a pose?”

Sam’s mind was blank, he couldn’t speak. Jess jumped in and started to explain briefly about how they spent months making the wings to work and then explained how they wanted to pose.  
Castiel nodded and smiled, taking a moment to get into character as Clarence. Sam noticed Jess and Castiel posing for the camera and quickly got into position. He just hoped he didn’t look too stupid as the camera flashed. 

Jess thanked Castiel and gave Sam a thumbs up as she left so he could take his second photo. Sam nodded and turned toward Castiel again. His voice seemed to have returned to him. 

“Second op? What are you thinking, buddy?” Castiel asked.

“Hug!” Sam blurted out. “I mean I was thinking a hug? If you don’t mind the wings and stuff?”

“No problem!” Castiel smiled and embraced Sam in one of the warmest, comforting hugs he’d ever felt. It didn’t even feel all that awkward despite the wings. The camera flashed and Castiel patted Sam on the shoulder. 

“Thanks, buddy. See you at autographs?” Castiel questioned.

“Definitely. Thank you!” Sam said and rushed out of the room toward Jess. 

Sam was on cloud nine. He hadn’t said much but the interaction was perfect. He had heard so many fans gush about how a hug op was the best pose to do, especially at your first con. Now he knew why. He couldn’t wait to see how the photo turned out.

Sam and Jess returned to the auditorium. There was still some time before the next panel so there were plenty of seats in GA available. They both got out their phones and killed time. Liking and reblogging people’s live tweets from previous panels. 

Next was Julie’s panel, who played Anna, Jess’ favorite character. Jess freaked out and fangirled the whole time and Sam joined in too. Something about seeing someone love something that much, made the joy infectious. Jess even got picked to ask a question which put her in a good mood the rest of the day. 

The rest of the day flew by and Sam and Jess overheard that Castiel ops had printed. They stopped by to pick up their photos. Sam couldn’t believe how great they turned out. They all looked badass in the group photo and Jess offered the printed copy to Sam to keep.

Sam’s individual photo was amazing. Sam had hoped his photo turned out well enough to get signed at autos later and now he didn’t have to worry. 

Sam had been so flustered in the op room, he had forgotten to take off his lanyard pass but other than that both Castiel and Sam looked great. Sam cherish both the photo and the memory of the hug forever. 

At that moment, Jess was looking through her folder admiring the photo she had picked up. She couldn’t stop gushing about the experience during the op where Julie had so kind and sweet about Jess’ idea to pose with her homemade angel wings. 

Sam hoped his experience with Castiel during autos was just as good as the photo ops. He was hoping to spend a little more time and tell Castiel how much he meant to Sam.

Soon enough, Castiel had entered quickly through the back door of the panel room and autographs were being called. Sam got in line, this time without Jess to help with his nerves. But he could do this, he had gotten a practice run during photo ops and now was his time to shine. His photo op had already turned out great there was nothing to worry about.

When Sam approached the front of the line, a volunteer asked him how he would like the autograph personalized. A yellow post-it note was then stuck to the top of the photo in capital letters “Sam”.

Castiel was taking his time to talk to each of the fans as he signed their items so the line was moving pretty slowly, but eventually Sam was at the front. 

He passed his photo and sticky note on to the volunteer and waited for Castiel to be done with the previous fan. 

“Wow. This turned out great!” Castiel commented when the photo was slid over to him.

“Can you actually use a gold sharpie?” Sam requested, feeling brave enough to speak right away this time.

“For you? Of course.” Castiel winked and switched out the black sharpie for gold.

Now was Sam’s chance. “I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your acting and Clarence is a great character. All the love and care you put into him in your acting really shows on the screen.” 

Castiel smiled and nodded, “Well I’m glad there are fans like you out there or I wouldn’t have this job. So thank you, Sam!” Castiel commented as he touched the post-it note indicating Sam’s name and fixed a corner of the post-it that hadn’t stuck quite right. 

“You’ll want to keep this photo safe. It’s a keeper” Castiel smiled. 

Sam nodded, not quite sure what to say, made brief eye contact with Castiel to say another silent thank you, and then moved so the next person could approach. 

Was it just him or had really had two amazing interactions with Castiel Novak today? He didn’t know if any other con could ever beat this. 

When he returned to Jess at their seats, he told her all about it. He went over repeatedly what Castiel had said to him and how “it was just amazing!” Jess nodded along and agreed as any good friend would, when suddenly there was a commotion from the fans next to him. 

One of the fans in the group of girls gathering in the seats across the room had shouted out “Hey Castiel!” 

Sam looked up. It looked like the autograph session had ended and to his surprise Castiel and some convention volunteers were walking right towards Sam and Jess’ seats to get to the door. 

Castiel was mere feet away from where Sam sat waving goodbye to everyone and thanking them for coming. 

Sam got to his feet and before he knew it, the words were out of his mouth “Castiel!”. Castiel turned to his right to look at the noise. Then Castiel and Sam locked eyes.

Was this a dream? Sam from a month ago could have never expected to have this kind of personal attention with Castiel outside a photo op. Sam couldn’t help but smile. And Castiel smiled an even brighter smile than before and winked. 

Sam’s breath caught for a moment. Wow, Castiel was gorgeous. 

And then Castiel’s back was to him and he was out the door. 

Most of the crowd dispersed, the convention was over. Volunteers started to take down chairs but some fans remained to sit and wait for the last photo ops to print.

Jess immediately turned to Sam. “Oh my god, Sam! We were so close! Did you see he winked at you? That was amazing!” Jess squealed. “Maybe he’ll remember you next con. I mean you were giving pretty clear heart eyes and it looked like he caught on” Jess teased.

“Ha ha, Jess. I’m sure he was just being nice” Sam replied. But really wouldn’t that be nice, to be recognized by an actor who meant so much to him. 

“Hey, sorry to interrupt. It’s just I was taking a secret video when Castiel was walking this way and you’re actually in it.” A girl rambled. She was cosplaying as Samandriel’s vessel, dressed in the iconic fast food uniform. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean to film you without your consent or anything but he was walking over here so quickly and then he winked and it seemed to be directed at you from shouting his name-” The girl seemed to realize Sam got the point and cut herself off. “Anyway my name’s Sarah. I can tag you when I upload the video to tumblr or something if you want? It’s actually a pretty sweet moment between you two.” 

She made a move to show Sam her phone screen and sure enough there was the side of Sam’s face as Castiel looked directly at him and winked. 

“What?” Sam mumbled, surprised that there was actual visual evidence of the moment. Sam nodded “Yeah, yeah I’d love to see that video again. I’m emmy4cas on tumblr haha” Sam laughed. Talking about fandom in real life was probably always gonna be weird.

The girl seemed to light up at that point. “You’re emmy4cas? I love your blog! I’m cuteclarence!” 

Sam had known a few people he followed had posted on tumblr they’d be at the con but he was still surprised. Cuteclarence was one of his favorite Angels blogs, they’d been mutuals for a few years. Sarah and Sam hugged and took a moment to take some selfies. 

They gushed about the con and how funny Castiel’s panel was earlier. Sarah had gotten a few photo ops and a Castiel autograph that she showed Sam and Sam showed her his two photo ops. 

Castiel had signed his hug op “to Sam” with a winky face, which they gushed about for quite some time. They both promised to tag each other in their con posts later and hugged before saying heartfelt goodbyes. 

Lawrence was less than an hour away so Jess and Sam were driving back tonight. It was already nearly 11pm. The day had really flown by.

As Jess pulled onto the highway back toward Lawrence, Sam was in the passenger seat checking his text messages. There was a text from Dean asking when he would be home tonight, but that’s not what caught his eye. 

He had been holding his con folder in his lap since they left the convention center. He didn’t know if he’d ever get over the two photo ops today but the hug photo was his favorite.

Out of the corner of his eye looping writing peaked out from the bottom of the post-it note. It was a miracle the note had stuck to the photo op this long.

_“So do you have any vacation time soon? Let me know if you’re ever in Los Angeles. I’ll show you around. 555-234-2406 *winky face*”_

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone deserves to meet their favorite actor and fall in love. Let me know what you think!


End file.
